Chatterjee cheated CPI-M: Pinarayi Vijayan (Lead)

Malappuram (Kerala), July 23 (IANS) Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee was “a traitor to the party”, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) Kerala state secretary and politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan said here Wednesday. “As a Communist holding a high office, he cheated the party,” Vijayan told reporters soon after the CPI-M expelled Chatterjee on the charge of anti-party activities.

After the CPI-M and three other Left parties withdrew support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, Chatterjee was advised by the party to quit the post, but he refused to do so, leading to the expulsion.

“He did not show the discipline that is expected from a Communist,” Vijayan added.

Addressing reporters at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala Chief Minister and politburo member V.S. Achuthanandan also justified the move.

He said: “He was well aware of all the issues and therefore his action was an open violation” of party discipline.

Achuthanandan said the CPI-M had delayed the decision till the trust vote as this would have sidetracked the real issues during the parliament debate.

But Congress leader and former Kerala assembly speaker V.M. Sudheeran said: “The CPI-M has a wrong concept regarding the speaker.

“CPI-M expects the speaker to stick to its point of view. This cannot be agreed to. The party first erred when it included the name of Chatterjee in the list of its MPs submitted to the president (while withdrawing support to the government). Once a person accepts the position of speaker he is above party politics. That is the convention.”